Process for the production of foam baths for treating textile materials.



UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

PETER scrnvm), or BAsEL, SWITZERLAND.

PROCESS FOR THE PRODUCTION OF FOAM BATHS FOR-TREATING TEXTILE MATERIALS.

No Drawing.

' To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, PETER SCHMID, a

of Basel, Switzerland, have invented a new and useful Process for theProduction of Foam Baths for Treating Textile Materials, of which thefollowing is a full, clear,'and exact specification.

The invention relates to a process for the productionof foam or frothbaths for treating textile fibers and textile fabrics of all kinds.

According to this process the foam or froth bathsare produced by addingto the watery liquid to be transformed into foam or froth alkalis andwastes of common trees as for instance" cops, chippings and sawdust offir-wood, pine-wood and thelike needle-woods or leaves of beech-trees,mapletrees, poplars, acacias, etc., or mixture of these tree-wastes andheating afterward the Watery liquid containing the said 'tree wastes toboiling.

The processis employed for treating textile fibers of vegetal, animal orchemical origin, raw or in every state of manufacture, for instance forungumming, phosphating, silieating," soaping, cleaning, fulling, dyeing,mordanting, fixing mordants and dyes, etc.

It is known that silk, silk wastes and fabricsthereof can 'be treated asthreads, tissues, etc. p

(a) With soap latherKU. S. Letters Patent No. 848,605), in order toobtain an ungummingof the silk with a great soap sav- (b) With a foam orfroth produced from a watery liquid containingsilk chrysalids or silkwastes'containing silk chrysalids or sericin and, if desired sodiumcarbonate or soap, in order to obtain an ungumming, a phosphating or asilicating of the silk (U. S. LettersPatents No. 1,199,433,'No. 1,207,800 and U. S. Letters Patent application Ser. No. 173,066 dated June 5,1917.)

It is further known, that the soaping of printed cotton fabrics, of wooland of wool fabrics and of jute made woolly and of articles made of thislatter material as well as the fullingofwool can be effected with soaplather.

ACCOIding to the present invention, it becomes possible (1) To avoidcompletely or nearly completely the employkof soap not only for theungumming of si silk wastes and fabrics Specification of Letters Patent.

Application filed November 27, 1917.

Patented Oct. 15, 1918.

Serial No. 204,286.

thereof'or for thei fphosphating and silicating, but also for all othertreatments for which heretofore soap, or soap and other substances, orsodium carbonate alone, or alkalis in various preparations and invarious mixtures with other substances, or acids, or mordanting baths ofvarious compositions inform of liquid or of foam or froth have beenemployed forfibers of vegetal, animal or chemical origin in all forms ofmanufacture(threads,tissues, etc.)and in all states of treatment (raw,dyed, printed, weighted or not) and (2) To avoid also completely'ornearly completely'the addition of silk chrysalids or of silk wastescontaining silk chrysalids, of sericin and of soap, if the saidfibersare treated in foam or froth baths produced as follows:

Int-o a vessel of iron or Wood provided near its bottom with a heatingcoil or into an iron vessel placed on a furnace or other heating deviceis introduced a layer of water of 15 to v30 centimeters height,containing 1 to 8 or more grams of sodium carbonate per liter and 10 tograms of common tree wastes as for instance copse, chippings or saw-dustof fir-wood, pine-wood and the like needle-woods, leaves of beech-trees,maple-trees, poplars, or acacias, per 1 to 3 liters of pure or raw waterand by boiling the liquid is transformed into foam or froth.

As in the new process substances are employed which may contain bacteriawhich, for instance when the process is employed for cleaning or washinglinen, must not come into contact with the linen, it will be useful toshow in what an excellent, simple and sure manner this condition .isattained with the idea upon which the new process is based.

The copse, chippings and saw-dust of firwood, pinewood and the likeneedle-woods or the leaves of beech-trees, maple-trees, poplars oracacias are introduced into the water near the bottom of the vessel andboiled and only when the boiling point has been attained and thus allbacteria are destroyed, the foam or froth is formed and has to rise 10to 25 centimeters before it can come into contact with the linen to betreated, maintaining during this rising the finely divided vegetalsubstances in the foam bubbles at the boiling temperature. The foamproducer is an extract of the above specified tree waste contained inthe aqueous liquid at the bottomof the vessel. The hubbles"forme'd ofresins, sa1ts,ac'ids,"a1ka1is,

etc, and a hot mixture of steam and air,

constitute an excellent substitute for} the soap owing to theircontinuous and very quick 'revival at the same place o f-the linen uponwhich every bubble has to act in the same manner,-tha'tis to say, hastO-dlSSOIVG the" dirt or render it soluble. Itis obvious that by thecontinuous boiling of the aqueous liquid the sodium carbonate willVsaponify the resins of the tree-wastes. The produced foam orfroth maybe neutral aoid'or al- 'kaline.

The textile material to be treated is held in any convenient manner inthe vessel above tl1e aqueous liquid containing the treewastes and thesaid liquid is heated by the :steamcoil or other heating device andtrans formed quickly into foam or froth which will rise through and overthe textile mate rial and produce the ungumming, soaplng or cleaning ofthis latter in a time varying from 8 to '120 minutes according to thekind of textile material treated. For the fabrics,

which shall be white or show a particular touch or be colored, therecanbe 'added,b'e-

' fore or duringthe foaming, the necessary quantity ofsubstances"capable of producing ithe'touch'or of oily or .dressing substances orof dystufi's or of any other soluble substance, which, ifdesired, can bea destroying agent for the bacilli. i v r A very uniform treatment ofthe textile material occurs, since the aqueous liquid is throughoutboiled with'the introduced substance at the-bottom of the vessel, beforeit rises as foam or froth which is continuously revived. V I I Nearthe'bottom of the vessel the bacilli are destroyed in the boiling liquidand above this later, that is to say, in the'foam or froth they aresubjected to two actions, namely on'the one hand to the action of theliquid boiling parts of every individual bubble and on-the other hand tothe very 'intensiveaction of the steam flowing out of eachbubble-in themoment of its bursting; The liquid of the vessel circulates quickly; itrises as foam,-'is condensed at the 50' walls and in the upper part ofthe vessel, sinks again and begins a further circulation. Theextraordinarily quickrenewal of the individual foam or froth bubbles'produces 7 an extraordinarily intense destroying of the bacilli.

The greater part of the dirt on the linen is merely madesoluble by thefoam or froth and not drawn in the liquid'yat the bottom of the vessel,the said dirt being only eliminated at the subsequent washing of thelinen treated with foam or froth with water, while the linen assubjected tov asqueezing action. The, linen itselfcomes onlyinto contactwith Copies o ffthi s pa tent maybe obtained for thefoam,'but ever intocontact with the liquid. Thus the solid tree Wastes never 1 come intocontact' -with the linen.

immersedfor a certain time in cold swarm. waterconta ning, if. desired,sodium carbonate.

The described treatment with foam or froth can also be employed fordyeing all the specified fibers in a foam or'froth bath,

thedyestufi being introduced, in the usual manner, into the foam orfroth or into the liquid employed for the formation ,of the foam orfroth. I 1 V I V According'to the textile materials treated,

the vessel of the'app'aratus can be provided L111 its upper part-withremovable and rotatable holders on'whichthe silk hanks'or other :fabricsto be treated with 'foam or froth can be suspended or with rollers overwhich hurdles or trays *o'r. endless, co'ntinuously moved nets, on whichlinen or; the like can be treated with the foam or froth.

What I claim is:"'

' )1. The herein described'pro'cess for the production of foam or frothbaths forjtreating textile fibers and textile fabrics, consisting inadding alkalis andwastes of com- "mon trees to the liquid to betransformed ing mixture to a boiling. r v

2. The' he'rein described-process for the production of foam orfrothbaths for treating textile fibers and textile. fabrics, con'sisting in adding alkalis and wastes of needle-woods to the liquid tobe transformed jinto 'foarn or froth and subjectingthe resulting mixtureto -1a boiling,

into foam or froth and subjecting the result- The "herein describedprocess 5 for the fproductionof foam or froth baths; for treatingtextile 'fibers and textile fabrics, "con- *sisting in adding "alkalisand leaves of common trees to the liquid to'be transformed the calicosor'oth'er tissuesfcan' be conducted it through the foam or froth or withremovable into foam or froth and subj'ecting'the resulting mixture toa'boiling;

' "In witness whereof I havehereunto'signed 'myname this 30th day ofOctober, 1917,

in thepresenceof two subscribing witnesses.

' PETER SQHMID.

Witnesses: r

' 'HKH. DICK,

AMAND BITTER. i

washingtomn'fi." 1 e five cents each, by addressing thefGommis'sione rof Batents,

